(You Gotta) Fight For Your Copyright

According to the Official Google Search Blog, Google is adding a new signal to improve their search results. Starting next week Google will take into account the number a valid copyright removal notices in its search ranking algorithm.  This means that when a user searches for "listen to beach house" a legitimate site with proper content (such as NPR, Vevo, or Spotify) would turn up higher in the search results than a P2P site.  The logic is that those sites with the highest number of of removal notices will appear lowest in search rankings.

Most content owners are content with the move.  Micheal O'Leary of the Motion Picture Association released the following statement.

We are optimistic that Google’s actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe. We will be watching this development closely — the devil is always in the details — and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves.

Illegal content sites have been a major issue for organizations like the MPAA and RIAA, who frequently demanded sites containing what they considered illegal content to be removed from search results.   The difficulty is that only a court can decided whether or not copyright infringement took place.   Once a court has rule than an infringement took place, a copyright removal notice is issued.  The number of removal notices has exponentially increased over the last 2 months, with more sites taken down in the last week than in all of last year.  Currently there have been over 4.4M take downs.

I for one think this search update is a very clever and effective way to bring legal content to consumers.  What do you, person who hasn't finished 10 blog posts, think?  Will this step hamper illegal downloading?  Does it go too far or not far enough?